Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/129

 BLACKHEATH HUNDRED

��been rebuilt in a substantial but unpicturesque man- ner. The rectory is on the site of an old house sur- rounded by a moat now drained. Winterfold, on the hills, is the modern residence of Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice, Nanhurst of Lady Carbutt, Barrihurst of Colonel W. A. Browne. Wyphurst is an old farm converted into a large modern house, the seat of Mr. Chadwyck Healey, C.B., K.C. It has been en- larged from designs by R. Blomfield, R.A., F.R.I.B.A. The other large houses of the parish are on the site of old manor-houses, and fall under the manorial description.

Part of the Roman road, which runs through the parish, and which probably went from near Shoreham to Staines, can be traced in Cranleigh parish. 6

The Peek Institute was founded by the late Sir H. W. Peek, in memory of Lady Peek. It includes a club, with reading and billiard rooms, and a library.

Cranleigh School was opened 12 October 1865, and largely added to in 1 869, when the chapel was built by the late Sir H. W. Peek at a cost of 6,500. Further additions have been made subsequently. The style is Early English, in brick, with stone wings. The school was originally called the Surrey County School, and special advantages were offered to Surrey boys. It is now equally open to boys from any place. The object of the school is to afford a public-school education on moderate terms, and the religious teach- ing is distinctively Church of England. 7 The whole of the original cost was borne by subscribers, and Sir H. W. Peek, Lord Ashcombe, Sir Walter Farquhar, Mr. Douglas D. Heath, and Archdeacon Sapte, rector of Cranleigh, were among the most prominent of the early supporters and governors of the school. The Rev. J. Merriman, D.D., St. John's College, Cambridge, was the first head master. The late head master was the Rev. G. C. Allen, M.A., St. John's College, Cam- bridge. 8 Mr. C. H. Tyler, M. A., was appointed 1 909.

A reputed native of Cranleigh was Thomas de Cranleigh, Fellow of Merton, 1366, first Warden of Winchester, 1382, Warden of New College, 1389, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 1390, Archbishop of Dublin, 1397, Chancellor of Ireland 1397 to 1400 ; he died in 1417, aged about eighty.

Cranleigh seems at the time of the Domesday Survey to have formed part of the vills of Shiere, Gomshall, and Bramley. The parish of Cranleigh contains Vachery, part of Pollingfold, Holdhurst, Knowle, Utworth, and Redinghurst, the first three of which were members of Shiere or Gomshall, and the last two of Bramley. 9

VACHERY in Cranleigh parish was

MANORS a member of the manor of Shiere

Vachery. The lords of Shiere kept it in

��CRANLEIGH

their own hands. The name itself (vaccaria, or dairy) gives sufficient reason for this. Henry III granted bucks to John son of Geoffrey to stock his park of Vachery. 10 His son John obtained a grant of a weekly market and an annual fair at Cranleigh, on the eve, feast, and morrow of Lammas Day," and appropriated to himself free warren there," There was a manor- house in Vachery in 1 296 ; ls at present there is a farm- house and the remains of a moat. The Earls of Ormond resided either at Shiere or Vachery." The farm-house was sold by Earl Onslow in 1783." Nanhurst Farm cum Treewell, part of Vachery, was sold by Lord Onslow in 1815."

In 1820 Vachery was the property of Thomas Lowndes. 17

HOLDHURST Manor (Holehurst, xiv cent.) wai an outlying portion of the manor of Shiere, which was called ' Sutton or Holhurst at Downe.' The lands belonging to it in Shiere and Abinger are no doubt the lands which it appears from Domesday were seized by the Bishop of Bayeux, and added to his manor of Bramley. 18 These are treated under Shiere. Later, Holdhurst in Cranleigh and Holdhurst in Shiere became separate estates.

The history of the property, before its division, seems to be as follows :

In 1297 Walter of Holdhurst conveyed land in Bramley and Shiere to his son John. 19 There was a Walter of Holdhurst living at Cranleigh in the early years of the reign of Edward III. 10 In May 1368-9 Thomas of Holdhurst and his wife, Alice, were in possession of the manor ; " possibly incorrectly so- called, for the Court Rolls of Gomshall Towerhill of 1 3 67 say that Thomas Holdhurst held a yard-land in Cranleigh. It continued in his family till the reign of Henry VIII, when, on the death of Thomas of Holdhurst, John Wood and Arnold Champion succeeded in 1532." Arnold Champion died seised of a moiety of the manor in 1546." According to Manning and Bray it was afterwards the property of Richard Wood (possibly son of the above John) and of John his son. His sister and heir, Agnes wife of Richard Welles, conveyed it to Richard Onslow of Knowle, 31 December 1568"; and in 1584 James Hobson and his wife Anne conveyed a moiety of the manor to Richard Browne and Edward Onslow. 15

Meanwhile Sutton in Shere was now separated from Holdhurst in Cranleigh and the connexion forgotten. Edmund Hill was in possession of the whole of ' Sud- ton aRas Holhurst aftas Halhurst at Downe,' meaning Sutton in Shere, in 1554;" but this had no connexion with the land in Cranleigh. 87 Sir Edward Onslow, son of Thomas, was in possession at his death in 1615 ^ of the Cranleigh land.

��* Surr, Arch, Coll. vi, I, and private information to the writer from the late Mr. James Park Harrison, who traced the road.

1 See also V.C.H. Surr. ii, 221.

8 Mr. Allen was instituted to the living of Send, Oct. 1908.

9 Vachery was a member of Shiere Manor (Chan. Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I, 50 ; Fine R. 27 Edw. I, m. i). Pollingfold and Holdhurst were held of Gomshall Towerhill ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxlvii, 72 ; Ct. R. quoted by Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 539. Utworth was a member of Bramley, and Redinghurst broke off from Utworth ; Feet of F. Surr.

��19 Hen. Ill, 16; Add. Chart. (B.M.), 17606.

10 Close, 29 Hen. III. m. 15.

" Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 2.

11 Plac. Ji Quo Warr, (Rec. Com.), 742*

13 Chan. Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 50.

14 See Mins. Accts. bdle. 1250, no. 4, where under the heading Shere and Vachery the accountant states that there was no return from the 'said house' since it was assigned as the lord's ' hospicium.'

15 Egerton MS. 2651, fol. 213.

14 Deeds penes Messrs. Whateley & Bar- low, Godalming.

W Egerton MS. 2651, fol. 215. y.C.H. Surr. i, 305*.

87

��" Feet, of F. Surr. 26 Edw. I, 85.

7628 ; and Ct. R. of Gomshall Tower- hill.
 * >Add. Chart. (B.M.), 7610, 5940,

"i Anct. D. (P.R.O.), B. 3942.

M Ct. R. quoted by Manning and Bray, op. cit. i, 539.

M Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Irxrv, 71.

94 Manning and Bray, op. cit. iii, $39. Cf. Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 1 1 Eliz.

Ibid. Mich. 26 & 27 Eliz.

96 Misc. Bks. Exch. L.T.R. clxix, 211 ; clxviii, 69.


 * 7 See below, Shere, for Sutton descent.

19 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccli, 105 Cf. Feet of F. Surr. East 4 Ja, I.

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